As usual, I check to see what things are being celebrated every day. Some are fun little things. Others don’t really make a lot of sense to me.
For example, today is Meteor Watch Day. Sounds like fun. Well, except for the weather. I’m starting to wonder if we will ever see anything other than clouds in the sky, but I’m sure it will clear some time. Not likely tonight, so you could watch meteors. But that’s not why the day doesn’t make sense to me.
Meteor showers are fairly regular. Although some years are better than others, Earth, on a regular basis, flies through patches of space debris and some of these rocks and chunks of ice hit the atmosphere and burn up, giving us meteors. But they are pretty predictable. We know when we will be able to see them, weather permitting. June 30 is not one of those times.
There’s a meteor shower toward the end of July. There’s one in mid-August, which is usually one of the most active. There are a couple in September and October, at least one in November, two or three in December, one ion April and one in May. They can overlap with each other a bit, and they can vary slightly as to when we might see them. But the end of June is not really one of those times.
I like watching meteors, particularly the Perseids in August. The temperature is usually pretty nice and you can just lay out and look up. And if you can hit them on a good night, you can see a lot of them in a short space of time. All of which makes it good as a family activity, since you don’t have to wait forever to see something fly by, then blink and miss it. There is usually enough happening to make it entertaining.
All I’m saying is August 11 or 12 would be a better Meteor Watch Day.
Although if it ever clears, I may still look up. Just to see what’s up there.